Politics aside, dude seems like a genuine scumbag.

  • Danitos@reddthat.com
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    2 days ago

    Colombian here, I can give some context, at least from my perspective.

    Current president is Petro, a left wing president. Cepeda is the candidate from there same party. Abelardo is the far right candidato that won.

    Petro has done an awful job. I’ll add some examples in a comment. Cepeda seems better than Petro, but lacks criticism against him, so people add Petro’s shortcommings into Cepeda’s candidature.

    On the other hand Abelardo got sold as an outsider to the classical politics, as he came out of nowhere, and 1 year ago nobody knew who he was. He’s actually been an ally of Uribe (our most controversial president in recent history; far right as well) and the traditional right, just simply not as involved in politics. He also got his fortune by defending and being an ally of criminals (think an IRL Saul Goodman). He’s beyond awful and like OP said, a genuine scumbag (e.g., in an interview, he laughed while remembering how he used kill cats with explosives).

    Some people were gonna vote against Petro no matter what. Some people really ate the lies that Abelardo, a man that got his fortune by allying with criminals, will fight really hard against criminals. Some people think both candidates were awful, and had to choose the least awful of both of them. And that’s how we got him as our next president.

    • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      ¡Gracias!

      Sadly, that all sounds familiar.

      I don’t know what y’all use in Columbia, but I would bet money social media played a huge role, in Abelardo’s favor.

      • Danitos@reddthat.com
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        1 day ago

        People mainly use Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and WhatsApp. I think yeah, Abelardo campaign used a lot of AI-generated videos, I think far more than Cepeda’s campaign but I don’t know much of an impact they had.

        Btw, it’s Colombia, not Columbia.

    • NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml
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      2 days ago

      “Some people think both candidates were awful, and had to choose the least awful of both of them. And that’s how we got him as our next president.”

      I’ve heard that song and dance before.

    • Danitos@reddthat.com
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      2 days ago

      Examples of Petro’s missmanagments:

      For context, keep in mind Colombia is a rather poor country, that has been in an ongoing armed conflict spanning several decades.

      See for example his “Total peace” program, in which he wanted to resolve conflicts with armed groups via dialogue rather than violence. While this sounds very good on paper, the reality is that the majority of said groups simply acted in bad faith, and used the program as an opportunity to grow bigger. Number of combatants in said groups grew like 50%; extorsions: up 25%; terrorism: up 90%; kidnappings: up 290% (!). And yet he and Cepeda insists on the program, instead of realizing you can’t take that route with some groups that simply act in bad faith.

      Both of them are also pushing for a “Constitution Asambly”, a way in which we can create a complete new Constitution. Our current one is from 1991 and allows it to be constantly modified, but enforces some limitations of power to the president, which they want to remove (like the CNE, an election overviewer and also the National Bank independence from there current president’s hands). He famously promised not to do that in both his 2018 and 2022 campaigns, but once he got elected, started pushing for it in 2024.

      Health sector also got hit baddly (it was bad, but not this bad), corruption has been rampant (which, being fair, has always been the case) and the country got bankrupted. Petro genuinely also looks like he’s constantly high in drugs, I’m not even kidding.

      He’s also constantly crying on Twitter about how the elections have been fraudulent, despite not showing evidence, or spreading missionformation proved to be false. All of these generate an uneasy feeling of his party keeping the power for other 4 years.

      • buran@lemmy.today
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        1 day ago

        Hey, I just wanted to thank you as another Colombian.

        You are giving people an excellent and balanced report of the situation, very well informed and written.

      • MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        dude, i don’t have time to follow every country’s politics closely. I suspect we only have enough mental energy to follow one, maybe three or four if you’re a politics junkie like me. Entonces ¡Gracias! This writeup is detailed enough for dipshits like me to follow and pretend we can understand. You know that white dude nod.

        • Danitos@reddthat.com
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          1 day ago

          I’m glad :)

          I think there’s only like 3 active Colombians in Lemmy, so I try my best to make any remark/clarification about it. If you have any question, I’m happy to answer.

            • Danitos@reddthat.com
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              1 day ago

              “Ají”, which is hot sauce. Your typical Colombian ají looks like this:

              a picture of typical Colombian aji

              What about you? Do people usually eat empanadas in your country?

              • MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.world
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                1 day ago

                I think they are just being introduced to my area. I think the first one i had was fifteen years ago, and the second was two years ago. It was worth teaching myself to cook these. i think i make them twice a month now.

                I either put pulled pork (leftovers from barbecue) and kohl slaw in them or ground beef seasoned like tacos with some salsa fresca. Then we dip them in whatever salsas we have leftover from the carneceria.

                I am currently looking up Ají recipes, that looks fantastic

                • Danitos@reddthat.com
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                  23 hours ago

                  kohl slaw

                  For real? WTF lol. I mean, if you like them, obviously go for it, but I’ve never seen an empanada with that. We usually put some beef/pork/chicken with rice/mashed potato, and dip in salsas as well.

                  I am currently looking up Ají recipes, that looks fantastic

                  The one in the picture I sent you is veeery easy to do: simply cut and smash/add together some tomato, onion, cilantro, a bit of water, a bit of lemon juice, salt and mashed chilly pepper seeds (or any hot thing you can get your hands on). You can also use a very similar recipe to make guacamole, just add mashed avocado. Despite the similarities, it should also taste different to a salsa fresca.

                  • MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.world
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                    23 hours ago

                    i mean it’s our barbecue leftovers and they taste good together. more of a tex-mex (tex-galician? i don’t know where empanadas are from they’re just delicious) flavor but i haven’t gotten complaints yet.

                    i figure most people who don’t like kohl slaw have only had nasty kohl slaw. the secret is you slice half the cabbage really thin, and half the cabbage a little thicker. also we add apples because we have a lot of good apple orchards nearby